Doctor of Clinical Psychology (D Clin Psy) – North Trent/University of Sheffield
PLACEMENT MEETINGS AND REPORTS*
INITIAL PLACEMENT VISIT
Purposes:
i)
To discuss Placement Aims and Activities and to produce an Aims and
Activities plan (see below).
ii)
To facilitate theory-practice links.
iii)
To discuss general expectations regarding supervision and the placement.
iv)
To facilitate negotiation of a good working relationship between the
supervisor and trainee.
v)
To ensure that relevant information has been transmitted to the supervisor
and trainee (e.g. time for visits to mentors).
When:
Within the first three weeks of placement (Wednesday/Thursday/Friday) or
during the placement observation day.
Attended by:
Supervisor, Trainee and Clinical Tutor.
Documentation: A Placement Aims and Activities Plan (see Section 7.2) is completed following
this meeting. For Placement 1, the plan will usually be produced by the clinical
tutor. For subsequent placements, the trainee completes a draft Aims and
Activities Plan and sends this to the clinical secretary by e-mail or on a floppy
disk prior checking by the clinical tutor and a final copy being produced. The
clinical secretary will then distribute this to the trainee, supervisor, clinical tutor
and personal tutor. The headings within the Aims and Activities Plan may be
used to structure the initial meeting. Placements in the four core specialties are
also guided by the suggested core components for placements in these specialties.
Where a trainee’s previous placement has generated future goals for the trainee
concerned (the Points for Continued Development sheet is provided for this
purpose), these can also be incorporated into the plan.
The plan may be regarded as a statement of intent on the part of those involved,
and also sets out what ground the trainee needs to cover in order for his or her
work to be assessed. Estimates of anticipated caseloads at this stage are not
meant to be binding, since no-one can predict the vagaries of referral rates,
dropouts etc. They are intended to convey an upper and lower limit, below which
the trainees would not have sufficient experience and above which the work
would be too stressful or repetitive.
The specificity of the Aims and Activities Plan is usually found to be helpful,
especially when reviewing the progress of the placement.
* See further information for supervisors providing a year-long integrated placement and guidelines for
third year placements.
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MID PLACEMENT VISIT
Purposes:
i)
To review Placement Aims and Activities and identify any areas which
may have been overlooked so far in the placement. This may include
adjusting workload expectations or agreeing to remove or add activities to
the plan where necessary and providing the quality of the placement is not
substantially affected. Where there are serious shortfalls in the experience
available to the trainee, a strategy needs to be agreed to deal with this, for
example arranging for the trainee to spend time with another supervisor.
In this situation the clinical tutor, if necessary, must decide, in discussion
with the supervisor and trainee, what work must be done by the trainee for
the placement to be sufficient. If this level is not reached, assessment of
clinical competence may need to be deferred to a future placement. (N.B.
This would not constitute a failed placement – see “Guidelines for Making
the Most of Placements” (Section 2.6), item 8 “Placement Monitoring”
and item 9 “Procedures for Failing a Placement”.)
ii)
To elicit from the supervisor views of the trainee’s progress (SelfAssessment Schedule) and identify any aspects of the trainee’s
performance, in relation to the report headings, that should be focused on
in the second half of the placement. These may be points for development
within a generally competent performance on the part of the trainee. In
some cases the supervisor may have serious concerns about a trainee’s
competence and learning. In such a case it is necessary to be open about
this. Where it is considered a possibility that the trainee may fail the
placement then, painful as this is, it must be both said and noted. Not to
do so is, in the long run, more difficult for everyone. (See ‘Guidelines on
Making the Most of Placements’ for fuller discussion.)
iii)
To elicit from the trainee feedback regarding the placement (preview
assessment forms). From time to time the supervisory relationship itself
has not completely settled down, perhaps because of a mismatch of
expectations that the supervisor and trainee had of one another. The
presence of a third party, the placement tutor, can be extremely helpful in
bringing this out and helping to establish a clearer mutual understanding
between the trainee and supervisor about what they expect from each
other. A fairly simple thing like the regularity of supervision times can
sometimes become an important issue where expectations differ. In this
situation the clinical tutor may function as a mediator.
iv)
To identify those features of the placement that are proving most useful to
the trainee’s learning needs.
v)
To identify successes and problems arising from i) to iv) above and to
consider mechanisms for addressing these as necessary.
* See further information for supervisors providing a year-long integrated placement and guidelines for
third year placements.
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3.1
When:
Mid-way through the placement.
Attended by:
Supervisor, Trainee and Clinical Tutor. There is also an opportunity for the
trainee and supervisor to meet individually with the clinical tutor prior to the
major part of the meeting. This time is used to consider issues that might be
difficult to raise in a three-way meeting in order to agree how they may be
addressed. The individual meetings may also be used to discuss more general
issues about training.
Documentation: A mid-placement report (see Section 7) is completed by the clinical tutors and
copied to the supervisor, personal tutor and the trainee.
END OF PLACEMENT MEETING AND COMPLETION OF END OF PLACEMENT
FORMS
Purposes:
i)
To discuss and review the placement and monitor fulfilment of the Aims
and Activities plan.
ii)
To exchange and review end of placement reports by the trainee and
supervisor.
iii)
To mark the transition of ending the placement.
When:
End of placement.
Attended by:
Supervisor and Trainee. The Clinical Tutor may attend on request.
Documentation: The Supervisor’s Report Form is completed by the supervisor. The trainee
completes the Log of Placement Activities, Trainee’s Evaluation of Placement
form and the Learning and Development Record. At the end of the placement,
the trainee and supervisor should meet together, having filled in these forms, to
discuss their contents and sign them. Signing does not necessarily indicate
agreement with what has been written – it does indicate that each has read what
the other has written. An end of placement meeting with the clinical tutor may be
arranged on request.
* See further information for supervisors providing a year-long integrated placement and guidelines for
third year placements.
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3.1
The following completed placement forms should be sent to the Clinical Secretary at least two
weeks before the relevant Board of Examiners meeting, or within two weeks of the end of
placement – whichever occurs first. The trainee should retain a copy of all forms submitted.
1.
Supervisor’s Report on Clinical Work
The Points for Continued Development will be copied to the next supervisor.
2.
Trainee’s Evaluation of Placement
3.
Trainee’s Log of Placement Activities
The trainee should submit copies of the relevant sections to the Clinical Secretary.
4.
Learning & Development Record
A copy of the back sheet (Points for Continued Development) should be submitted to the
Clinical Secretary and will be copied to the next supervisor.
* See further information for supervisors providing a year-long integrated placement and guidelines for
third year placements.
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